Sakaki talks about Weekly Shounen Sunday to people who hopefully listen.

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Thursday, February 16, 2017

Selling Sunday

Hello all! In an effort to do more than just nerd over the mag and Saike, I thought I'd bring something a little more factual to the blog --sales numbers! Wait, wait, don't all leave at once. This is purely for fun's sake and I don't expect everyone to like or understand, but since a good friend of mine compiled this list, I figured it would be interesting to share.

The series noted in red have ended, and the "regular" and "limited" editions usually contain some sort of extra, be it an Anime DVD or something else. Surprisingly enough, although Conan is the most popular series in the magazine it is not in fact the one that sells the most. In fact, the distance between it and Magi is pretty close in terms of sales. Like in Jump, One piece is the most popular manga, and it's sales indicate that as it easily more than triples the numbers of even the more popular series in the mag, while Conan is not only second, but the next popular series, Magi isn't that far behind. Granted the situation here is unique as Gin no Saji (Silver Spoon) is currently on hiatus. Another thing to note is that most of the big sellers are by popular artists. Big names really do mean a lot!

Now, lets look at a few of these in terms of growth.

Gin no Saji (Silver Spoon)

#11 - 853,851
#12 - 786,796
#13 - 866,073

Granted the time between volumes may have made a difference, but Silver Spoon saw a brief drop and then rose right back up. I heard it's on it's way out soon which makes sense considering how many hiatuses it's been on.

Detective Conan

#89 - 562,581
#90 - 562,654
#91 - 481,879

Conan is pretty stable. (The last number looks lower only because this mostly takes into account sales of 2016 so that last volume hadn't been out long.) Which is all you can really ask of for a series it's age....to not drop significantly between volumes. Miracles can happen where more fans join the fray, but it's not a realistic expectation.

Magi

#29 - 410,948 (Including Limited Edition)
#30 - 417,279
#31 - 382,265

I'm actually not sure what the limited edition was for this. (If you know, tell me in the comments!) Though it's kind of odd that the one with the limited edition sold less than the subsequent volume without it....Also 31 dropped a bit, but it might be the same case with Conan. In any case, Magi sells well and is on it's way out anyway so it's probably safe.

Dagashikashi

#04 - 221,922
#05 - 158,531 (Including Limited Edition)
#06 - 177,549

Now we get to series that aren't as storied with Dagashikashi, obvious by how it's numbers are only about half of Magi's. Volume four sold really well, but then the series experienced a drop. Now I don't think it's something to worry about as seen above it's still in the top five sellers in the magazine, and they'd be crazy to let it go. Though I admit I don't know why there's a drop --as obviously events of a series can turn fans away and I haven't been reading it that long. (I got into the series 'cause of the anime.)

Major 2nd

#05 - 285,867
#06 - 256,665
#07 - 234,005

Major has some major staying power. Obviously it's riding on the coattails of it's predecessor, but it's strong numbers from the start prove that people still love this ongoing saga of Baseball, though it's experiencing a bit of a drop from volume to volume. If it can last a bit, they might just start up another anime which would definitely see it grow to greater heights. The series I've talked about above have all had anime that have given rise to greater numbers ---which is the ideal situation to be in. If a manga sells well before it gets animated, then even if the anime itself doesn't sell, as long as it moves manga that's good enough.

And now RINNE. A few notes here is how for whatever reason volume 19 seems to have been it's apex for the last few releases, and how it seems to yo-yo between 30-40k. WSS is weird in what it decides to animate/promote as the next entry will show, but anything by Takahashi is pretty much guaranteed an anime at some point. These numbers are pretty average for a WSS series that isn't of the upper Conan, Dagashi, Major, Magi echelon too.

I'm not sure how my buddy did it, but he managed to get all of Keijo's numbers thus far. Take a look at RINNE and then Keijo, and then back at RINNE. Yup, these numbers pale by comparison, yet it somehow got an anime (that also failed to sell.) Keijo has clearly failed to thrive, but yet the magazine keeps it around for some reason. You're probably thinking "Well, 7,851 copies sold isn't too bad, and that was probably around the time the anime was airing." Ah, it's true, but comparison is king which brings me to...

Saike's shown more growth in it's six volume career than Keijo has over it's lifetime, and it doesn't even have an anime yet! Volume 7 has already been released, but unfortunately that was in 2017 so it's hard to tell if Saike rose again or dropped. If Saike can keep growing it should be fine, but it's also in constant danger of being swept away by newer series.

Be Blues is weird too as it's doing pretty solidly for a sports series with no anime ---which is the point. It really should have an anime at this point to boost it past the 87k threshold it seems to be stuck in. It's been around long enough, and has performed really well, so why is it stuck in a no anime wasteland? Only the editorial department knows...

How the mighty fall. Whereas Conan stays steady and Saike rises, Hayate has been constantly on a decline. Granted it has blips that rise slightly, but for the most part it seems fans have grown tired of it. It is on it's final arc, so perhaps that's for the best --especially if it's dropping despite having limited edition numbers figured in to these.

I do have numbers for other series, but I don't wanna clog this up too much. If you're interested in knowing how something sells, just drop me a line.

My friend did inform me that poor RYOKO isn't looking so hot despite all of it's promotion, but as we can see, names matter a lot. Mitsuhashi is talented, but he's still a new name in a magazine full of vets, so I hope the editorial department will give him time and room to grow.

But yes, it's an interesting thing to see how the numbers add up, isn't it? I'd like to thank Torca @ Mangahelpers for digging up and assembling this info!

2 comments:

These sales figures are very appreciated! Interesting to compare sales between each series. It really is a shame Silver Spoon is ending soon considering a new volume sells double of what Conan does. Hopefully Arakawa makes a new series for Sunday after it finishes and it's also as big of a hit. Also interesting that Dagashi Kashi is considered in the upper tier of Sunday titles in terms of sales. I never would have guessed it was so successful, which makes it even more of a shame that it might not get more anime seasons. It's a shame Rinne sells so average considering Takahashi's pedigree. I kind of want her to end it so she can try her hands at making a new, genuine hit like her other series were. Keijo!! seems to have had a minor uptick in sales because of it's anime but wow, it really is unpopular, huh? I have a feeling it might do better in the west considering how popular the anime was on streaming here though. That's definitely worth a discussion when we do our Shonen Sunday episode.

Yeah, it really is interesting to compare series by sales numbers. You'd think Conan rules the magazine but it is primarily second when it comes to the almighty dollar (or yen, in this case.) Meanwhile Dagashi was pretty much a hit from day one, which makes it's anime failure strange. Granted these numbers pale in comparison to Jump where even the least successful of series --but successful enough not to cancel do better than Dagashi, which is telling.

Keijo is really unpopular. I'm not sure if it's editorial preference or just plain luck, but it really shouldn't have survived this long. From the looks of things in the series, it doesn't look like it's gonna end anytime soon either so at this point I guess they're just happy with having a series that brings *some* revenue. Granted I think it's done for if another series manages to pick up some slack, which is to say if Saike, Be Blues or Akuto get an anime it will seriously be in trouble.

I could see Keijo getting a --asshold in the west, but since there don't seem to be any plans to bring the manga over (which is somewhat understandable) all we'd have is the thirteen episode series which can only do so much. Though oddly this happened before where Kenichi's anime was brought over, but the manga wasn't --though in that case I feel like it's because it's *really* long. Either way, I thank you for commenting!